Daily Archives: March 5, 2017

Advancing Data Functionality for Offshore – #OILMANNEWS (blog)

Posted: March 5, 2017 at 4:37 pm

Systems and Services that Optimize Organizational Results

By Jennifer Delony

The industrial internet of things is transforming the offshore oil and gas sector. One estimate claims that a typical offshore oil platform generates up to 2 terra bytes of data per day thats the equivalent of 1 million digital camera images.

Cisco, in its report A New Reality for Oil and Gas, said that, if oil and gas companies properly leverage the data they produce, they can capture $600 billion of value at stake through 2025. For a $50 billion oil and gas firm, that translates to an 11 percent bottom-line improvement, the report said.

That doesnt mean that offshore companies are all jumping on the big data bandwagon instead, theyre carefully evaluating the possibilities to understand what data, and the analysis of data, can do for their operations.

To get a glimpse into where the offshore sector is headed in terms of data and its applications, and what systems and services it is leveraging to get there, take a look at BP.

At the end of last year, BP announced it is working with GE on the deployment of a new integrated system called Plant Operations Advisor (POA). BP said that it started using POA to manage the performance of one platform in the Gulf of Mexico, and given success there, the company will deploy it to other BP facilities around the world this year.

According to BP, POA will help prevent unplanned downtime and improve facility reliability by helping engineering teams respond quickly to issues as they occur in real time.

The POA tool was built on GEs Predix operating system a software platform that is used to collect and analyze data from industrial machines. This cloud-based platform-as-a-service works at industrial scale for asset performance management (APM) by connecting machines, data and workers.

APM lies at the heart of this next-level digital system. It puts enterprise asset management software together with real-time information from production and data analysis and advanced analytics. In a nutshell, it allows companies to see their assets, make decisions to optimize those assets and optimize organizational results.

ARC Advisory Group, in a report on how APM overcomes challenges in oil and gas, said that currently too much time is dedicated to collecting, aggregating and analyzing available data, rather than converting it to meaningful business decisions. That is due to the application of data to disparate systems with no integration. APM alleviates these issues.

These solutions, based largely on todays increased connectivity, use of open standards, and increasingly more capable platforms for predictive and prescriptive analytics, enable oil and gas companies to move from largely re-active, conventional approaches for managing their critical production and automation assets to todays far more effective proactive and predictive approaches, the report said.

According to BP, the POA system rapidly integrates operational data from producing oil and gas facilities to deliver notifications and analytical reports to engineers so they can identify operational performance issues before they become significant. The system provides simplified access to a variety of live data feeds and includes visualization capabilities including a real-time facility threat display. It also incorporates an extensive case management capability to support learnings from prior operational issues.

GE plans to make this technology available to the entire oil and gas industry.

More Options

Offshore companies have also turned to OSI Softs PI System for collecting, analyzing and visualizing data for real-time management. The PI system allows a company to integrate whatever data they want, and create a customized display of that data.

According to Kevin Walsh, industry principal T&D, for OSI Soft, one of the strengths of PI is that it allows platform managers to perform predictive analytics.

He said that PI has different modules that allow for the input of mini-analytic calculations based on certain attributes or time frames to create an operational band. If operations go outside of that band for example, plus or minus 1 percent for more than three minutes in a row, PI notifies managers that an alarm-level event is immanent. This feature gives managers a visual on possible problems before they happen a huge advancement in data functionality.

Srikanta Mishra, Ph.D., Institute Fellow and chief scientist for energy at nonprofit Battelle, says his organization offers analytics to the oil and gas sector under its Elucidata service.

Offshore companies have been slow to engage with their data at the level offered by Battelle, but Mishra says they are interested.

According to Mishra, the Elucidata service is an umbrella for a process that Battelle provides to integrate data from multiple sources.

The task that Battelle undertakes is intended to bring all of this data into one easy-to-use platform that can then be utilized for knowledge and discovery, he said. The idea here is to learn from the data and then use that to make decisions.

Under the knowledge discovery component of Elucidata, Battelle offers clients a combination of advanced statistical capabilities and in-house subject matter expertise.

In addition, Mishra said that Battelle captures information from the knowledge discovery component in customized software solutions and user interfaces that makes it easy for managers and decision makers and, on the platform, operators, to make decisions that are based on what has happened in the past, and from which robust insights can be derived.

In the offshore environment you might say that there are two discriminating factors one is the situation with respect to automation; a very high level of automation is becoming more and more commonplace, Mishra said. The second is the data that we get from offshore environments is really big data in the sense that we get lots of data we get very frequently sampled data so the challenge is how do you process this information in real time, as opposed to doing it offline, and make decisions with respect to the behavior of your system in the near future?

He said that, for example, a company might monitor pressure and temperatures and flow rates, and seek to understand, given the kind of conditions, what the pressure is going to be in the next hour, the next 24 hours, and whether its going to trigger some danger threshold that needs to be mitigated.

In terms of predictive maintenance, Mishra said, the organization can look at the past history of failures and near failures and correlate them with other indicators of the system, with respect to pressure or temperature, for example. With that information, its possible to establish a trigger system, so that if the system crosses X value of pressure and Y value of temperature, certain equipment is likely to undergo failure because it has failed in the past under these kinds of conditions.

The challenges are really in how do you take this massive amount of data and then process them in a real-time or near real-time environment, he said. And after you go through the knowledge discovery part, having gone through the data acquisition and management part, how do you capture that learning, and those insights, into some sort of a decision support interface that can be used by the operator on the platform or somebody who is sitting in a control room in onshore office?

Whats Next?

ABS Groups Matt Mowrer, director of applied technology and data analytics, says that there are many applications for business analytics coming in the near future.

Mowrer said that the next step beyond predictive analytics is prescriptive analytics.

I really see that working on the risk side, where Im not just providing alarms to operators about anomalous conditions based on multiple data feeds, but actually giving them the recommended action to minimize the time it takes them to make the decision and also hopefully eliminate bad decisions, he said.

Also down the road, Mowrer sees the possibilities for the development of augmented reality for operations and maintenance workers, where they are in the physical environment and they have access to a virtual environment.

He said that, from a wearable technology perspective, such as Google glass, operations and maintenance workers can access maintenance procedures, and have an interface where they interact with equipment to minimize time spent troubleshooting or identifying tools and procedures.

Youre seeing these things on the consumer side, and I think theres some natural industrial applications for them, he said.

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See How This House Was 3D Printed in Just 24 Hours – Singularity Hub

Posted: at 4:34 pm

3D printing is being used to produce more and more novel items: tools, art, even rudimentary human organs. What all those items have in common, though, is that theyre small. The next phase of 3D printing is to move on to things that are big. Really big. Like, as big as a house.

In a small town in western Russia called Stupino, a 3D printed house just went up in the middle of winter and in a days time.

Pieces of houses and bridges have been 3D printed in warehouses or labs then transported to their permanent locations to be assembled, but the Stupino house was printed entirely on-site by a company called Apis Cor. They used a crane-sized, mobile 3D printer and a specially-developed mortar mix and covered the whole operation with a heated tent.

The 38-square-meter (409-square-foot) house is circular, with three right-angled protrusions allowing for additional space and division of the area inside. Counter-intuitively, the houses roof is completely flat. Russias not known for mild, snow-free winters. Made of welded polymer membranes and insulated with solid plates, the roof was designed to withstand heavy snow loads.

Apis Cor teamed up with partners for the houses finishing details, like insulation, windows, and paint. Samsung even provided high-tech appliances and a TV with a concave-curved screen to match the curve of the interior wall.

According to the company, the houses total building cost came to $10,134, or approximately $275 per square meter, which equates to about $25 per square foot. A recent estimate put the average cost of building a 2,000 square foot home in the US at about $150 per square foot.

Since these houses are affordable and fast to build, is it only a matter of time before were all living in 3D printed concrete circles?

Probably notor, at least, not until whole apartment buildings can be 3D printed. The Stupino house would be harder (though not impossible) to plop down in the middle of a city than in the Russian countryside.

While cities like Dubai are aiming to build more 3D printed houses, what many have envisioned for the homes of the future are environmentally-friendly, data-integrated smart buildings, often clad with solar panels and including floors designated for growing food.

Large-scale 3D printing does have some very practical applications, though. Take disaster relief: when a hurricane or earthquake destroys infrastructure and leaves thousands of people without shelter, 3D printers like Apis Cors could be used to quickly rebuild bridges, roads, and homes.

Also, given their low cost and high speed, 3D printed houses could become a practical option for subsidized housing projects.

In the US, tiny houses have been all the rage among millennials latelywhat if that tiny house could be custom-printed to your specifications in less than a week, and it cost even less than youd budgeted?

Since software and machines are doing most of the work, theres less margin for human errorgone are the days of the subcontractor misread the blueprint, and now we have three closets and no bathrooms!

While houses made by robots are good news for people looking to buy a basic, low-cost house, they could be bad news for people employed in the construction industry. Machines have been pouring concrete for decades, but technologies like Apis Cors giant printer will take a few more human workers out of the equation.

Nonetheless, the company states that part of their mission is to change the construction industry so that millions of people will have an opportunity to improve their living conditions.

Banner Image Credit: Apis Cor

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Major projects at two Ascension Parish high schools take shape – The Advocate

Posted: at 4:31 pm

New classroom buildings for freshmen are steadily going up on the campuses of two Ascension Parish public high schools, mostly unfazed by the August flood.

Work on the freshman academies at East Ascension and Dutchtown high schools, both of which escaped flooding, came to a halt for two or three weeks after the flood, while construction workers dealt with their own flood-damaged homes, said Travis Parker, the school district's project manager for the academies.

But in the months since, "We've been back to full force and moving along," Parker said.

The two freshman academies, each approximately 38,000 square feet, broke ground in the fall of 2015 and are expected to open for students in the spring of 2018, he said.

On the campus of East Ascension High on Worthey Street in Gonzales, the $17 million Freshman Academy project, paid for by sales tax revenues and a 2009 bond issue, also includes the building of a new kitchen and cafeteria/auditorium that will serve the entire student body.

Currently about 70 percent complete, the Freshman Academy is a two-story, free-standing building that will tie into the main school building by walkways.

The freshman building will incorporate the colors and textures of the existing school, in an updated look for the East Ascension High campus, which opened in 1965, Parker said.

The $12.8 million Freshman Academy at Dutchtown High, on La. 73, will be almost identical to the main school building, one of the newer schools in the district, that opened in 2002 and recently had its cafeteria expanded.

The freshman building, funded by sales tax revenues and currently about 40 percent complete, will tie into the main school building on both its first and second floors, Parker said.

The Ascension Parish school district has, for several years, had a "freshman academy" program in each of its four high schools, three on the east bank and one on the west bank, with freshmen having the same group of teachers throughout the day, intervention for those who are struggling and their own associate principal.

The new freshman academy buildings, each designed for 600 freshman, give ninth-graders their own space, as well, and ease overcrowding in the three east bank high schools.

+11

ST. AMANT A two-story classroom building just for ninth-graders is being built on the camp

In February, the opening of the school district's first Freshman Academy, at St. Amant High School on La. 431, was instrumental in the student body's return to the campus.

St. Amant High students, who had been going to school at host site Dutchtown High in the afternoon hours since the flood, are now back at their home campus in temporary classroom buildings and the Freshman Academy.

+14

ST. AMANT For the past six months, St. Amant High students have carried on the school year

The freshman buildings are a way "to help students move from the eighth grade, where they are on top, to high school, where they are beginning anew," Lisa Bacala, director of secondary education for the school district, has said.

Follow Ellyn Couvillion on Twitter, @EllynCouvillion.

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Ascension Academy’s Jeff Zheng wins Regional Spelling Bee – Amarillo.com

Posted: at 4:31 pm

As the competition went on, the words got tougher and tougher.

But, in the end, Ascension Academys Jeff Zheng outlasted 15 other competitors over 35 rounds plus the championship word to win the 69th Regional Spelling Bee on Saturday at the Region 16 Education Service Center. Zheng, 12, moves on to the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., for Bee Week, beginning May 28 and culminating in the nationally televised competition.

Zhengs championship word was monstrosity, which he spelled just after bifocals.

My last five words were the most difficult, Zheng said.

Eli Alley, 12, almost got stuck on the word wiseacre, which he didnt know before the competition. But now that the Buffalo, Okla., student knows its definition, Alley thinks its an apropos self-descriptor.

I like that word, he said. I feel like I could be described that way sometimes.

Alley placed second in the competition after faltering on the word imitate. He improved after last years fourth-place finish and says hes ready to compete and win next year.

I find spelling fun because you get to learn new words that youve never heard before, he said. It gives you a feeling of relief when theres a word you dont know but someone else gets that word. Sometimes it feels unfair because someone gets such an easy word and youre stuck with a word you had to guess on.

Perrytons Nicholas Battin won third place and said he loves the challenge of competing. Battin says he was eliminated in the third round during his last trip to the Regional Spelling Bee, so this time he studied for about two-and-a-half hours a day.

There are some words that I struggle with that have weird spellings; those I have to constantly spell, Battin said.

Kinley Rehder from Shattuck, Okla., said she started competitively spelling about three years ago.

The first year I tried out, I came here and got fourth place, she said. I love the meanings and definitions of words.

Rehder, the last girl standing at this years Bee, said her biggest challenge is learning to slow down and take her time. She was eliminated on the word lulled.

Some of the junior spelling champions from the regions counties were also in attendance.

Storm Heger, whose favorite word is contraband, traveled with his family from Hugoton, Kan., to watch big sister Gillian compete.

Some words are challenging but I usually just look them up on the internet or in the dictionary, Storm said. Theres nothing I cant overcome.

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Jeff Bezos Expected to Unveil Further Plans for Private Space Exploration – Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Posted: at 4:30 pm


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Jeff Bezos Expected to Unveil Further Plans for Private Space Exploration
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The burgeoning space-transportation company owned by Amazon.com Inc. chairman Jeff Bezos this week is expected to announce some customers and new initiatives, the latest step toward its long-term goal of building rockets powerful enough to penetrate ...
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DMNW Selects: Uplifting Trance For The Broken Heart – Dance Music Northwest

Posted: at 4:28 pm

You know what sucks? The feeling of defeat. You invest your time, your energy, your heart into something. into someone. Only for it all to get crushed. How do you bounce back from that? How do you bounce back from such heartbreak; froma loss?

We each have our own, unique way of coping with those feelings; some of us able to heal faster than others. In the world of trance music, DJs and producers have used their tools of the trade to uplift, creating spine-chilling tracks aimed to inspire and remind us to never lose love and hope when times get tough. While dealing with defeat is never easy, here are some uplifting trance songs that may providing healing and inspiration; lessons in love and hope that tell us it will all be OK.

Dont Give Up RAM & Chris Metcalfe feat. Natalie Gioia

One of the best when it comes to uplifting trance, RAM teams up with Chris Metcalfe and vocalist Natalie Gioia to deliver this beauty of a song. The action is steady in the beginning, but when the breakdown comes- goosebumps! The song title says it all: never give up on your dreams, a messaged reinforced by Gioias wonderful presence. Even if your dream is broken, dont give up. Its not the end.

Hope Mike van Fabio & Alex Van Reeve feat. Geert Huinink and Kim Kiona

Huininks orchestral melodies and Kim Kionas angelic vocals will send chills down your spine as this songinspires us to keep on pushing, no matter how hard things may get, no matter the hurt. As Kiona beautifully says, let us win this fight, together.

Saving Light Gareth Emery and Standerwick feat. HALIENE

The first trance song to top Beatports Top 100 charts for the first time in overfive years, Saving Light creates an emotion that feels better than almost all others: hope. The wish that no matter how bad things are going right now, tomorrow you can smile. The song pulls at the heart strings, and the video? Well, check it out!

Its In Your Heart (Acoustic Version) David Gravell feat. CHRISTON

One of our trance artists to watch in 2017, David Gravell ditches his signature progressive, big room style in favor of a piano, delivering a smooth melody that reminds to keep going after hope, no matter how foolish it may seem, or how brokenhearted we are. So dont back down, my love, its in your heart, its in your blood right now.

All Gone (RAM Uplifitng Mix) Andy Moor & RAM feat. Christina Novelli

RAM makes another appearance on our list- this time, joining forces with Andy Moor and famed trance vocalist Christina Novelli to remind us that when the lights die out, when we feel lost, to not lose our way.

A Thing Called Love Above & Beyond feat. Richard Bedford

ThisA&B classic says it best: You live your life just once, so dont forget about a thing called love. Love is one of the most important and powerful forces we have in our planet. Dont give up on it even when it may feel like its given up on you.

What song uplifts you? Trance Family, what songs should we add to the list? Drop a comment below!

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Brokerages Anticipate Edap Tms SA (EDAP) to Post $0.01 Earnings Per Share – The Cerbat Gem

Posted: at 4:25 pm

Brokerages Anticipate Edap Tms SA (EDAP) to Post $0.01 Earnings Per Share
The Cerbat Gem
Edap Tms SA logo Shares of Edap Tms SA (NASDAQ:EDAP) have earned a consensus broker rating score of 1.00 (Strong Buy) from the one analysts that provide coverage for the stock, Zacks Investment Research reports. One research analyst has rated the ...

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Columbus Statue Removed at Pepperdine Bow to Political Correctness – The New American

Posted: at 4:21 pm

Pepperdine University, a Christian liberal arts college located in southern California, is the latest institution of higher education to join in the trashing of Christopher Columbus.

Pepperdines president, Andrew Benton, bowed to the wishes of a minority of the student population when he announced January 30 that a statue of Columbus Columbus on the Malibu campus would be removed and sent to Pepperdines Florence, Italy, campus. Benton explained his decision by saying stories of conquest and the art associated therewith are painful reminders of loss and human tragedy. The statue was removed last month.

The statue had been donated to the university in 1992 upon the 500th anniversary of Columbus discovery of the New World by Columbus 500 Congress. No doubt the group mistakenly believed that Pepperdine, with its reputation as a conservative Christian college, would appreciate the man responsible for first bringing the Christian faith to the New World.

Speaking publicly about the decision, Benton defended the statues removal. I did not expect it to be popular. I didnt do it to be popular. I did it because I believed it was the right thing to do.

A small group of vocal students demanded the statues removal from the schools amphitheater, calling it a celebration of genocide and racial oppression.

In an official statement, the university argued that Bentons decision recognizes the importance of compromise in creating a campus culture of unity and inclusiveness.

Kaitlyn Pfingston, a graduate student spoke against the statues removal at a recent campus meeting on the subject, and particularly took issue with Benton calling it a compromise, saying, Thats a concession. Its not a compromise. Where is there any kind of compromise? Hes either removing [the statue] or hes not.

Pfingston also took issue with the assertion that Columbus was an instigator of genocide, and said that Bentons action supports that false impression. By [Benton] conceding [he] is effectively saying that those claims are accurate. And what that actually does is prevent other students who have the same opinion as me from speaking out because they dont want to be labeled bigoted or indifferent to human suffering or indifferent to indigenous populations.

Jens Cole, a junior at Pepperdine, dismissed the argument that most students were either indifferent to Bentons action, or actually opposed it. I think you have to pay respect to the people who were siding toward it being offensive and inappropriate.

Really? What would Cole think about offending those who see Columbus as a symbol of the good of Western Civilization? Why are their feelings and views not as important as those who wanted the statue removed?

Hannah Fleming, another student at Pepperdine, illustrates why the Left will never be satisfied, and will always find something else to be offended about. While she admitted that most people are indifferent, Fleming, who said she grew up on an Indian reservation, even opposed the decision to send the statue to Italy, arguing that removing [the statue] but still having it associated with the university is a little bit controversial.

The denigration of Christopher Columbus by secular progressive universities is unfortunate enough, but for a Christian university to jump on the trash Western Civilization bandwagon is particularly disturbing. The college is associated with the very conservative churches of Christ in the United States, and was founded in 1937 in south central Los Angeles by George Pepperdine, and moved to Malibu after some radicals in the 1960s threatened to burn down the campus. Pepperdine had earned his fortune with the Western Auto Supply company, begun with an investment of only $5. When he founded the college, he said he had two major objectives. First, we want to provide first-class, fully accredited academic training in the liberal arts.

Secondly, we are especially dedicated to a greater goal (emphasis added) that of building in the student a Christ-like life, a love for the church, and a passion for the souls of mankind. (Emphasis added.)

Ironically, this was the very goal shared by the man that the present president of Pepperdine has decided to trash Christopher Columbus.

While depicted in modern popular culture as a man motivated primarily for gold and spices, this was only a part of his larger motivation. It was his desire to find enough wealth to finance a crusade to free the Holy Land from Islamic domination and conquer the Holy Sepulcher [Christs empty tomb]; for this I urged Your Highnesses, Columbus told King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, to spend all the profitsfrom this enterprise on the conquest of Jerusalem. (Emphasis added.)

The Muslims had conquered Constantinople in 1453, completing their multigenerational conquest of the Christian world in the East, including the Byzantine Empire and the lands where Jesus had lived, died, and risen from the dead. Columbus, after careful study of the Old and New Testaments, along with some readings in the works of the historian Flavius Josephus, and the noted church father Augustine, had concluded that the city of Jerusalem needed to be in Christian hands before the Lord would return.

Specifically, Columbus believed the biblical prophecies would dictate the reconstruction of the Temple first. And Columbus was convinced that his present mission was part of the overall plan of God to see this was accomplished.

Columbus did not set out from Spain to enslave American Indians, since he was ignorant of their very existence. After reading of the travels of the Venetian Marco Polo, Columbus was inspired to reach the Grand Khan, the Mongol ruler of China. The Chinese monarchs had expressed to Polos family some interest in the Christian faith, leading Columbus to hope for the conversion of China, so they could then combine forces and drive the Muslims out of the Holy Land.

In other words, Andrew Benton, president of Pepperdine, a college founded with a passion for the souls of mankind, has removed the statue of the man who shared that passion.

Nationally conservative syndicated talk show host Dennis Prager, who launched a petition (which has garnered over 10,000 signatures) to keep the statue at Pepperdine, said, speaking of Pepperdine, Once regarded as one of the few sensible universities in the country, that appears to be a thing of the past. They have gone Left. They are getting rid of their statue of Christopher Columbus for reasons of diversity. The university presidents letter of explanation is an embarrassing bow down to political correctness.

Benton said that the statue was a painful reminder of loss and human tragedy, but Prager disagreed, saying he believed that Christopher Columbus should be venerated for his brave and heroic expedition. Columbus daring journey to North America led to the creation of the freest and most prosperous nation in human history.

William Fowler, a history professor at Northeastern University, took issue with Bentons comments about Columbus. The issue of genocide is a term [Columbus] would not have understood. To be guilty of genocide [Columbus] would have had to have intent. What evidence do we have of his intent to commit genocide?

On the contrary, Columbus intent was to take the gospel to Asia, and when he first arrived in the islands off the coast of North America, he believed he had reached the outskirts of Asia. No logical person could believe that his intent to was to commit genocide upon the very people he was hoping to convert to Christ, and help European Christians re-take the Holy Land.

Considering that Columbus died in 1506, it is difficult to argue that he was responsible for any genocidal activity which took place after that date. As George Grant wrote in The Last Crusader: The Untold Story of Christopher Columbus, To be sure there were perverse abuses ... but heap all that upon the shoulders of one man a man who unleashed upon the Americans far more good than woe is patently absurd.... Far from being a racist, he proved time after time to be overly enamored with the native populations he encountered.

While the Spanish no doubt were guilty of abuses, they did not commit genocide in the New World. The biggest killer of the indigenous population was not the sword of the conquistadores, but rather smallpox and measles. While Columbus certainly unwittingly made this possible by achieving contact with peoples of the Western Hemisphere, he can hardly be held responsible for it. Nor could other Europeans who followed him, who had no understanding of the transmission of these diseases.

Soon after his contact with the native peoples, Columbus wrote, I believe that they would become good Christians very quickly.

That hardly sounds like a man who wished to commit genocide, nor does it sound like a man that the president of a college founded out of passion for the souls of mankind would want to denigrate.

Steve Byas is a professor of history at Randall University, a liberal arts college in Moore, Oklahoma, associated with the Free Will Baptist denomination. He has written on Columbus and other historical figures he believes have been unfairly treated in modern times in his book Historys Greatest Libels.

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Ancient skulls shedding light on evolution of early humans – Science Recorder

Posted: at 4:20 pm

A pair of skulls unearthed in China could shed light on the ancient humans that lived in the region, a recent study published in the journal Science reports.

Scientist have long known that Neanderthals dominated most of Europe and western Asia before Homo sapiens arrived in the area some 60,000 years ago. However, actual evidence of those early populations has been hard to come by.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing uncovered the remains during excavations in Lingjing, Xuchang County, between 2007 and 2014. Both findings are partial skulls dating back between 105,000 and 125,000 years ago. Though without faces, the bones have clear similarities and differences to the Neanderthals who lived further west.

In addition, the team noted certain characteristics such as a low, broad braincase that link the skulls to even earlier species. However, other features associated with those species, such as bony ridges over the eyes, were not found. The team believes this is an example of gracilisation, in which a bone steadily loses mass through evolution.

Both specimens are of interest because they have comparatively large braincases. This gives more credence to the theory that larger brain sizes steadily became more and more prevalent in Europe, Africa, and Asia as time moved on.

This morphological combination, particularly the presence of a mosaic not known among early Late Pleistocene humans in the western Old World, suggests a complex interaction of directional paleobiological changes and interregional population dynamics, said study co-author Dr. WU Xiujie, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in a statement.

Because the skulls have no teeth, the team is not able to say if they are related to the Denisovans another ancient human species. Though little is known about the group, many believe it split from the Neanderthal lineage about 400,000 years ago. That likely led to interbreeding, which means subsequent lineages could have Neanderthal features in their morphology.

Theres a certain amount of regional diversity at this time, but also there are trends in basic biology that are shared by everybody. And the supposed Neanderthal characteristics show that all these populations were interconnected, said study co-author Dr. Erik Trinkaus, a researcher at the Washington Universitys Department of Anthropology in St. Louis, according toBBC News.

Joseph Scalise is an experienced writer who has worked for many different online websites across many different mediums. While his background is mainly rooted in sports writing, he has also written and edited guides, ebooks, short stories and screenplays. In addition, he performs and writes poetry, and has won numerous contests. Joseph is a dedicated writer, sports lover and avid reader who covers all different topics, ranging from space exploration to his personal favorite science, microbiology.

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GameTime: The Evolution Of The Three-Pointer – NBA.com – NBA.com (blog)

Posted: at 4:20 pm

GameTime: The Evolution Of The Three-Pointer - NBA.com
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The GameTime crew discusses the evolution of the three-pointer and its use in the NBA. GameTime. 10:18. The GameTime crew discusses the evolution of the ...

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GameTime: The Evolution Of The Three-Pointer - NBA.com - NBA.com (blog)

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